A Selected List of SF Motifs and Archetypes

“The goal here is to think of these motifs as the themes,dramatis personae, and fundamental polarities that constitute the unconscious, axiological drama projected onto the scientific events of a nature which, because of technology, is already fundamentally changed. They are the articulators of the personal, social, and psychological concerns that develop in the face of challenges brought about [by] the unrelenting explorations of science and the ever re-shaping consequences of technology.” Spinks, C.W. “Motifs in Science Fiction as Archetypes of Science” Extrapolation, Vol 26, No 2

1986 by The Kent State University Press p 93-108.

I. Utopic visions: “The destiny or error of our ways”

A. Utopias (visionary or satiric)

1. Religious, romantic, and rational

2. Order and option

B. Dystopias (apocalyptic or satiric)

1. Right, Left, and Dead Center

2. Atavism forever -- to change, to rise from nothing

C. Scenarios (reversing the fictional frame)

1. Statistical futurism (Studies show. . .!)

2. Allegories (transparencies and overlays)

3. Revelations and psycho-history (How’s that again?)

4. Games and simulations (What if. . .?)

II. BEM: “The bug-eyed monster”

A. Aliens (the phobic response)

1. The Beastperson (the evolutionary roots)

2. Visitors (Outside is inside)

a. From space

b. From time

3. Mind mirrors (He ain’t heavy, he’s my Other.)

B. Human-created monsters

1. Frankenstein’s creation (individual guilt)

a. Ugly and misunderstood

b. Cute and cuddly

c. Repulsive and rapacious

2. R and D run amok (corporate guilt)

3. Through the looking-glass (self-guilt)

C. Mad scientists (inhuman in the name of science)

1. Superman and Superheroes

2. The Sidekick and the Company

3. Families and lover (Id’s lonely at the top)

D. The helping hand (human in the name of human)

1. The sidekick (Igor is always with us.)

2. The visitation (demons, angels, and supervisors)

3. The representative of social norms

a. The feminine side (wife, sweetheart, etc.)

b. The masculine side (mentors or colleagues)

III. Time travel: “Back to the past”

A. Doppleganger (meeting yourself and the double)

B. Time paradoxes (self-erasure and ancestral murder)

1. Self-origins (incest plus)

2. Self-erasure (suicide plus)

3. Ancestral murder (Oedipus plus)

4. Zero loop (Here is there, then is now.)

5. Destiny’s fog (Que sera sera.)

C. Parallel worlds

1. Echoes (How many Romes on the head of a Caesar?)

2. Time warps (Toto, this isn’t Kansas anymore)

3. Time leaks (Who was that masked man, anyway?)

D. How things might have gone (the Utopic Sunday School)

IV. Eschatology: “This is the way the world ends”

A. Apocalypse (bang, whimper, or sigh?)

1. The terrestrial scroll (end of the world)

a. Dystopic sermons

b. Post-holocaust sessions

c. Civilizations re-built or destroyed

2. The larger context and conclusion

a. the solar system, galaxy, or universe

B. Neo-Darwinism (survival of the fittest)

1. Accidental (Murphy’s law)

2. Chosen (I need elbow room.)

3. Forced (Stress is best.)

C. The newest frontiers

1. Colonies in space (Starships, ho!)

2. Neo-individualism (misfits and self-reliance)

3. Manifest destiny (the Jerry Brown plan)

4. the urban shame and interstellar sin

V. Alien encounter: “Who goes there?”

A. Meeting them (inferior or superior)

B. Finding us (friend or foe)

C. Waiting for us (guards or guardians)

1. Watcher (for threats or promise)

2. Transformers (galactic mid-wifery)

3. Predators (Guess who’s coming for dinner?)

4. Competitors (This parsec is mime.)

VI. Evolutionary patterns: “The next stages”

A. Positive developments in the species

1. Esper heroes, etc.

2. The Golden Age (progress)

B. Negative developments in the species

1. Group minds, etc.

2. The age of lead (decay)

3. Steady state, head death, and same old round

C. Mutations (the new evolutionary path)

1. Biological (stealing the dragon’s eggs)

2. Psychological (use of the third eye)

3. Electro-mechanical (the servants take over)

4. Spiritual (the unspoken dimensions)

D. Creations (in charge of our destiny)

1. The biological chain

2. The mechanical sequence

3. The silicon service

4. The unexpected

VII. Artificial intelligence: “Chips off the old blocks”

A. Inheritors of humankind

1. Servants or masters

2. Guides or gollums

B. Conquerors of humankind

1. Dictators or dialects

2. Mainframe or mind-frame

C. Tools (or toys) of humankind

1. The bug found

2. The riddles unsolved

3. The plug pulled

VIII. Future extrapolations: “The wondrous plenitude”

A. Variations by biology, chemistry, or physics

1. Genetic, planetary, or technological

2. Evolutionary, geological, or engineering

3. Mold, mode, or psychic

B. Variations by psychology, sociology, or anthropology

1. Myth, religion, or mores

2. Sexual, social, or psychic

3. Individual, group, or total

C. Variations by experience

1. Magic, the fantastic technology

2. Occult, Radcliffe revisited

3. Horror, the emotional drivers

4. Religion, the sound of one hand clapping

5. Sex, conjugations, and other verves

IX. Alternative History: “Speculation about future changes”

A. Prediction and prophecy (the future scenario)

1. Look and see . . .

2. Yes, but . . .

3. I told you so.

B. History repeats itself (the chess-problem of history)

1. Psycho-history

2. Parallel worlds

3. Santyana’s maxim

C. The white paper (Or, stop the stupidity.)

D. Variations on time travel (the utopic journey)

X. Cosmology: “The big bang, big word, or big picture”

A. Mysteries of the universe (journeys of discovery)

B. Reality’s paradoxes (journeys of confusion)

C. Inter-galactic Beagle’s (journeys of exploration)

D. Galactic organization (journeys of politics or physics)